Invented and developed by Pristine Consulting, a Gambian software company with international standing, the GAMBIS platform has been in use for the past 8 years.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday at Pristine Consulting offices in Fajara, the company’s chief executive officer, A. Draman Touray, said GAMBIS is the world’s first totally integrated multi-document identification platform.

“This means that the platform was the first platform in the world in which national identify documents such as National ID Card, Driver Licenses, and Residential Permit are all issued on the same platform using the same database,” he said. “This is a significant achievement of which all Gambians and African should be proud.”

Mr Touray said GAMBIS platform is the type of technological innovation that African countries need in order to develop their countries.

“This type of innovation is also necessary in order to create employment and business opportunities for countries such as The Gambia where youth unemployment is high,” he said.

According to Pristine Consulting CEO, the GAMBIS database is the largest database in The Gambia with 350 gigabytes (350GB).

“Developing this large database took over 6 years and involved 1.2 million professional hours of work,” he said. “Over 4 million pages of documentation have been collected so far with over 100 Immigration and Police officials trained in the use of the platform.”

The GAMBIS project, Mr Touray said, has been entirely pre-financed by Pristine Consulting to the tune of over $3 million with The Gambia government spending zero dollars.

“To date, the GAMBIS project has given The Gambia government about D300 million and is the most successful private partnership project in Gambian history,” he said.

Mr Touray also used the occasion to announce the launch of a new product called ID Check to help businesses identify their customers.

“We are excited to launch our ID Check product in The Gambia following its successful use in 8 West African countries by various businesses including banks and microfinance institutions,” he said.

“We believe that our biometric software technology will reduce risks for Gambian businesses and make it easier to get access to finance and other vital services.”